When we are taking a photograph what are we thinking about in terms of the subject? We have learnt photographic skills and techniques in order that we may best express what we see in that subject, but do we use them? With the current trend for a quick “turn around” for photographs in which they … Continue reading It starts with the subject
THE FOUR ELEMENTS Earth, air, fire (heat/energy) and water. Take one of these and make it prominent in your photographs. If you're feeling adventurous do a series of images using all four elements and comprising of several shots for each. This could be a perfect subject for a self-made photobook. This project can be interpreted … Continue reading June Project
I have placed three new images on my portfolio under Recent Work. Please go and check them out. Thanks for looking
As I have said before on this blog, I started photography many years ago and learnt darkroom printing techniques whilst I was at university. At that time I obviously learnt about making test strips to make the print with the right exposure, density, contrast and depth. Even after test prints, you might still want to … Continue reading Getting that final print right
I have added another 4 images to the "Recent" section on my portfolio website. Please go and check them out. Thanks for looking.
During this enforced period of domicile incarceration, we have the opportunity to do things that in normal times we may not have the time or inclination to do. I do read a lot anyway, but I have been probably reading a bit more now during the lockdown. If I read novels, they are usually purchased … Continue reading A good book to get.
It is my normal Wednesday off work. My two girls are already busy at their desks home working when I come downstairs. A cup of tea for everyone and then its time to restring my 2008 black Gibson Les Paul Traditional guitar. I usually have one of my guitars on a stand in the lounge … Continue reading 8th April 2020
Day 15: Monday 7th April. Well, it’s the fifteenth day since the lockdown and I should think that the whole nation is waiting now to see if it continues. It obviously will. Whether there will be even more restrictions initiated after Easter will depend on what people do during the bank holiday. I think the … Continue reading 15 days – Day 15
Day 14: Monday 6th April Back to work today, so I move my screen to the back of my desk at home and open the company laptop in its place. I worked until lunchtime when I had a very nice salad made by Mrs M. Once we had finished and had the ubiquitous cup of … Continue reading 15 Days – Day 14
Day 13: Sunday 5th April. Today was another slow start. Breakfast in my jim-jams, back to bed for a leisurely read, a cup of coffee then shower and up. I had determined today to get the camera out into the garden and do some closeups of some of the plants we have. Not that we … Continue reading 15 Days – Day 13
Day 12: Saturday 4th April. Well, it’s the weekend and that means a little bit of a lie-in. It seems a little easier to sleep in these days as the traffic down the road is a fraction of what it was. Once up and about it was time to complete some chores and then … Continue reading 15 days – Day 12
Day 11: Friday 3rd April. It was somewhat of a varied day workwise. Paperwork involving pensions, HR stuff, IT assistance on a laptop with a faulty camera and software shenanigans. It was a relief to end the week that has felt so strange. I think we, I mean I, think about the work side of … Continue reading 15 Days – Day 11
Day 10: Thursday 2 April Back at work this morning and a trip into the empty office to get some paperwork. I managed to get quite a bit done with no interruptions until 11:30 then a conference call via Teams. Back home for the afternoon and finish off some of the work started this morning. … Continue reading 15 days – Day 10
Day 9: Wednesday 1st April. No work today as I don’t work Wednesdays. This morning I spent the time printing out some colour photographs. This is unusual for me as I predominantly take black and white images. The images today dated from 2013. I am gradually working through past work creating monochrome portfolios for each … Continue reading 15 Day – Day 9
EXPLORE A LENS Choose a lens you don't normally use or a single focal length on a zoom lens and find photos and angles which use it effectively. This project can be interpreted in many ways and the instructions are deliberately not detailed so that you can do them in your own way. Try not … Continue reading April Project
Day 8: Tuesday 31 March. This morning I had to go into the office to get another laptop ready for a home user. The office was freezing. I was there for the whole morning and despite sitting on top of a portable heater I could not get warm. When I left, despite it being a … Continue reading 15 days – Day 8
Day 7: Monday 30th March It was our first day back at work today after our week off. Work laptops were set up, PC's were plugged in and powered on. We were away. The day actually passed quite quickly and a lot of the time was spent acclimatizing to MS Teams which is being used … Continue reading 15 Days – Day 7
Day 6: Sunday 29th March The realisation that today is the last day of the week-long holiday myself and my family have had initially made me feel a rush of depression. Even though we were all self-isolating, it was nice not to have to think about work things. Tomorrow its “back to work”, my work … Continue reading 15 Days – Day 6
Day 5: Saturday 28th March. Today we look back on a holiday week that we have never seen before – and hopefully will never see again. It has not been unpleasant, but plans were dashed. Today the weather has turned wintery again. There are flashes of sun, but the clouds soon got in the way … Continue reading 15 Days – Day 5
Day 4: Friday 27th March The last day of our holiday and it’s been the strangest break I’ve ever had. We have been blessed with nice weather but reading a book outside today was not on the agenda. It is sunny but cold. The temperature has been dropping all week. We’ve never particularly worried about … Continue reading 15 Days – Day 4
Day 3: Thursday 26th March Once again the day was very sunny, but there was a chilly wind from the east which took the warmth away that we had yesterday. Mrs M spent the morning working on her laptop, even though she is on holiday this week. I made us a coffee grabbed a book … Continue reading 15 days – Day 3
I have just added another three images to the “Recent” section on my profile. As I add three I remove three of the older posts. As all of these images were taken in 2019, once I have run them all through the “Recent” section, the best of them will be put into the Archive gallery … Continue reading Portfolio Update
Day 2: Wednesday 25th March It’s another glorious day again today in the UK midlands. The sky is completely blue and if you get out of the slight breeze it’s very warm. The first job today was to set up Emz’s workstation in the study. Both Mrs M and I use laptops, but Emz bought … Continue reading 15 Days – Day 2
Day 1: Tuesday 24th March The whole of this week was supposed to be a celebration of our daughter’s 30th birthday, with the family being involved in an event every day. Obviously, in the last week, the plans seemed doomed because of the awful Covid-19 virus. Everything that we have planned has now been cancelled. … Continue reading 15 Days – Day 1
It’s Monday here in the UK and we are looking at the inevitable total lockdown throughout the country after the moronic activities of the thousands of people who congregated on the coast and in National Parks over the weekend. With this terrible contagion all around the world, it’s sometimes difficult to look at mundane and … Continue reading Keeping busy – photographically.
I have now updated my portfolio with another two images which can be found in the 'Recent Work' section on my website. The first is called ‘Spirit of the Woods’ and I hope it’s clear why that title came to me and why I approached the image in the way that I did. I saw … Continue reading Portfolio Update
Today I received the third volume in the monochrome photographic trilogy by Paul Hart on the Fens in the East of England. This last book in the series is called ‘Reclaimed’. The other books in this trilogy are ‘Farmed’ and ‘Drained’ and together they form an incredible body of work. The books themselves are superbly … Continue reading Paul Hart – Reclaimed
The on-going digitization of my 35mm slides from thirty years ago continues apace. I think I now have the whole setup sorted to the extent that I get the equipment placed out fairly quickly. To get decent images you need to ensure not only that the camera is level on all axis but that the … Continue reading Digitising Transparencies 3
OPENINGS Doors, windows, cracks in a wall, a gap through leaves, a hole; use one of these things as the subject or as a frame to view the scene beyond. This project can be interpreted in many ways and the instructions are deliberately not detailed so that you can do them in your own way. … Continue reading March Project
The first thing I needed to ascertain whilst intending to copy my transparencies from thirty years ago, was which Fuji lens would give the best result using the MCEX-11 extension tube? From my first tests, I found that the actual distances given on the table were not very accurate, giving blurred and distorted results. So, … Continue reading Digitising Transparencies 2
I have added two images to my portfolio this evening. The first is a collection of crab pots on the quay at Craster in Northumberland. I really liked the shapes that the pots made as they lay piled up on the quay. I also tried to ensure that I retained the curved shapes of the … Continue reading Portfolio Additions
Not content with trying to keep up with my image processing with photographs I am taking now, I have decided to try and digitise my transparencies from thirty years ago. I have them all in sleeves as hanging files in a couple of small cabinets in my loft and I just think that it would … Continue reading Digitising Transparancies
A SENSE OF SCALE How do we judge the size and scale of things in a two-dimensional photograph? Use this premise to show things as : large, small, open, confined, dominant or subtle. This project can be interpreted in many ways and the instructions are deliberately not detailed so that you can do them in … Continue reading February Project
Another image has been added to my portfolio this weekend in the "Recent Work" section. Once again it was taken at the Beamish Museum in County Durham. I love the way light falls through windows and decorates the objects that lie within a room. There is a multitude of tones that are formed by this … Continue reading Portfolio Addition
Camera Punk is a documentary film made by one of the Fuji ambassadors, Mindy Tan, about the ethos behind Fuji cameras and more particularly follows the X-Pro3 from its design to final production. Along the way, various X photographers talk about the almost symbiotic relationship they have with Fujifilm and the passion they have for … Continue reading Fujifilm documentary – Camera Punk
As I add new images to the “Recent Work” section on my Portfolio I will give a heads-up to the addition on here. This image, which I call “Iron Landscape” was taken in the Living Museum of Beamish in Durham. It was originally a portrait format image of the side of a boiler in the … Continue reading Portfolio Addition
I have now managed to get within viewing distance of the completion of my outstanding image processing. There is still a little way to go, but the end is in sight (until I take some more). As a result, I have now been able to update my portfolio website in the “Recent Work” section. … Continue reading Portfolio Updates
Having just opened a new year’s worth of monthly projects for the members of my online photographic club, I was ready to leap into the additional 365, a picture a day, project. Every week, seven titles are placed on the site for members to use to take a picture a day. However, it seems I … Continue reading Stumbling about for inspiration.
OPPOSITES Try to get two opposite things into one photograph, e.g. new and old, fast and slow, bright and dull, hard and soft and textured and smooth. This project can be interpreted in many ways and the instructions are deliberately not detailed so that you can do them in your own way. Try not to … Continue reading January Project
I have to say that I really love printing my photographs. I have had my Epson SC P600 for about 18 months and from the get-go, it was a breeze to use. I use Lightroom to print my images and that also is so easy to set up and use. There was, of course, some … Continue reading Printer Refillable Cartridge System by Marrutt
I finally have made in-roads to the photographs I have taken in 2019. I have been approximately 18 months behind my processing since the summer of 2017, and then in 2018, it dropped further back as I attempted to get my Associateship application for the RPS ready. Actually going back to your photographs after a … Continue reading Nearly There…
Photograph: A PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTIC Brief: You are to pick two titles from the list below and take one photograph for each of them. You must be very critical in obtaining your images. For example, all circular images must be circular, not oval, and red objects must be red and not orange. Blue Red Yellow Circular Square
I hate glasses. I've worn them since I was fourteen and I still hate them. I have worn contact lenses at some points in my life and used together with cameras they made looking through the viewfinder a pleasure. Then I got older and started to wear varifocals. My close-up sight is OK but my … Continue reading Cameras and @#~%$£ Glasses
Further to my last post, I have been out and about with my new X-T3 and I loved it. All my concerns about my thumb getting in the way whilst I back-button focus from the AF-L button were unfounded. Said digit seemed to not get in the way at all. To be honest I loved … Continue reading How I came to Fuji
Today I said no to the Fujifilm X-Pro3 and purchased an X-T3. My main camera is an X-Pro2 which is great and I really wanted a third model to come out so I saved up my pennies. When I heard the announcement of the release of the X-Pro 3 I was really looking forward to … Continue reading X-Pro3?
I would think that most people who know me would think of me as a confident person. For the most part, I feel that I am. However, when it came to my photography, I always had doubts that it was good enough. This self-critique in itself is obviously a good thing. We analyse our work … Continue reading A matter of confidence?
I recently attended a regular meeting of the RPS Visual Art group. One of the speakers that day was Sam Gregory. Sam is a professional photographer and tutor for Light and Land photographic holidays. His talk, suitably embellished with his brilliant photography was excellent. If you want to see what his photographs are like then … Continue reading More than one
Photograph: Old Fashioned Brief: Take photographs of an object that is or looks old fashioned. Try to show its various textures, angles and colours and even its use if possible. It’s up to you whether you take the images as a close-up or as still-lives. If the latter, ensure that the object is set up in … Continue reading Photo Project
As I have already said I have been going through my archives and printing the images that I like and think warrant it. Whilst going through the photo in my database I obviously have images that have been made on cameras that I no longer have. Cameras like the Olympus four-thirds (not micro) cameras E-30, … Continue reading It was a good ‘un
Mrs M and I spent the latter half of the morning and early afternoon at Compton Verney in Warwickshire visiting the Magnum Manifesto exhibition. The famous collective is 70 years old and the exhibition charts its aims, ideas and ideals., The exhibition features group and individual projects and includes over two hundred prints, many books, … Continue reading Magnum Manifesto Exhibition
For the last three or four months I have been going through all of the processed and finished monochrome images in my Lightroom catalogue and have started to print them to A4 size. My intention is to print the photographs and keep them in archive boxes labelled for each year or collections of years. To … Continue reading Re-working and printing
A few weeks ago, I posted that I entered some images into the Fujiholics Photographer of the Year Competition and that I had one image shortlisted in the Black and White Photographer of the Year section. Well, the judging for that was announced at the Hull International Photography Festival (HIPFest) on Saturday and I am … Continue reading Fujiholics Photographer of the Year
Photograph: A MINIMALIST LANDSCAPE Brief: Your project this month is to shoot a landscape image that has been stripped back to the bare bones, keeping your composition as simple as possible. Complex compositions with many elements all fighting for your attention can often make a shot unsuccessful, as the eye doesn’t have anywhere to … Continue reading Photo Project
I’m just back from three days in South Wales on a photographic holiday staying in Brecon. It was three days of rain showers and then warm sunshine but luckily all the really nasty, heavy, wet stuff came down during the night. After exploring the town of Brecon on Tuesday it was the turn of the … Continue reading Rain, sunshine and waterfalls
Fuji will officially announce the X-Pro3 on October 23, and already, despite the lack of confirmed technical details, it has polarised opinion amongst the Fuji X-Pro fanbase. The fixed LCD screen on the back of the camera has gone and instead, it has an LCD that faces the body of the camera by default and … Continue reading Fujifilm XPro-3
I’ve just heard that I have a photograph that has been shortlisted in the Fujiholics Photographer of the Year competition for the Black and White category. I’m not expecting to be placed, there are so many brilliant photographs that have been entered but I’m just really pleased to get this far. This is the image … Continue reading Fujiholics Photographer of the Year competition
I had a fantastic surprise today when I opened the autumn 2019 edition of Black+White Photography magazine. They had put fourteen of my ARPS panel images across 5 pages in their “Salon” monthly article. I had sent the images to the magazine after my ARPS assessment and had then had forgotten about it. I have … Continue reading Black+White Photography Magazine Salon images
Please read this absolutely brilliant post by Fujiholics supremo, Matthew Hart from his LightTraveller blog, entitled, “So you think you are a photographer! There are so many good points that Matthew makes in this entertaining but gritty piece that, in my humble opinion, are bang on the button. So, if you think you are a … Continue reading Matthew Hart on photography
This project is a little more involved than the previous ones, in that you have more topics to choose from and it asks you to produce a documentary-style selection of four photographs. Photograph: The Built Environment From sleek commercial districts to out of town shopping areas and forlorn precincts that have seen better days the … Continue reading Photo Project
A couple of weeks ago when I was looking through the images that I had just taken on my X-pro2, I noticed that I had some spots on the sensor. I used a rocket blower to see if they were just dust, but they weren’t. Those of you who have been reading this blog for … Continue reading Out damn spot! Out!
I’ve always loved monochrome photography. From the time I was at university developing and printing my own films in the cavernous dark rooms under the building up to now with digital cameras and processing. Of course, I have always done some colour images. In the eighties, it was transparencies with Fujichrome, but even then I … Continue reading Monochrome or bust
As a member of the Royal Photographic Society, I have already been awarded the Licentiate distinction for a panel of 10 images that I submitted in 2016. Since then I had been working towards the Associate award of the society. For this, fifteen images had to be produced within a cohesive piece of work and … Continue reading Associate of the Royal Photographic Society
Photograph: FOUND STILL LIFE You are to find a still life composition whereby all the components are already placed in position. A found still-life can be made of anything. It may be a room, it can be a single object small or large, it can be made of many small or large objects. You … Continue reading Photo Project
Photograph: Architecture Unlike most specialised areas of photography, there are few tricks or special equipment required for shooting architecture – only careful planning and an open mind. Your shooting position, the time of day, the colour and direction of light all have a profound result on the final image and it pays to shoot from … Continue reading Photo Project
In 1955 Robert Frank started a year-long journey across the USA with the intention of photographing America. He ended up taking 27,000 photographs which he would eventually edit down to 83 images that would fill his monograph, “The Americans”. Surprisingly the volume was published in France first in 1958 and then in the U.S. in … Continue reading The Americans by Robert Frank
Photograph: A flower or flowers Brief: Your project this month is to take a photograph of a flower or flowers. Whilst the weather should be getting warmer this image is to be taken indoors. You should take advantage of the wonderful soft light that windows can give an image. One way of doing this … Continue reading Photo Project
Photograph: FENCE / FENCES Brief: Sometimes fences are wrought iron, sometimes they’re wooden, and sometimes they’re barbed wire. For this project, take two photographs of two different types of fence and show in each case what purpose this fence is serving – what is it partitioning off from the surrounding area? When you are … Continue reading Photo Project
Not being one, I have always admired talented street photographers. Their tenacity, skill and endurance to trudge through the streets to get those brilliant images that enthral, inspire and delight us never ceases to amaze me. One of the best is Nick Turpin, the founder of iN-PUBLiC the street photography collective and an exhibited photographer … Continue reading From a photographer’s point of view
I have added some new photographs into the “Recent” section of my website. “Recent” is a bit of a misnomer really as the images were actually taken in 2018. I’m still ploughing through last years images and the process has taken a bit of a back seat recently as I work on my Royal Photographic … Continue reading CM Photo Website Update
Photograph: FADED BEAUTY Brief Many photographers have been drawn to record the processes of decay, decline and deterioration. For this project explore the idea of recording change, creating photographs that capture things at specific moments in their continuing physical journey. Locations suitable: historic cemeteries, crumbling houses, castles and estates. choose a place which gives you … Continue reading Photo Projects
Photograph: PATTERNS Brief: The world is full of patterns and we photographers are drawn to them, our eyes are predisposed to recognizing them. For this project, take photographs to produce two images based on patterns. The first image is to show a successful pattern, the second is to show a pattern that has been disrupted … Continue reading Photo Projects
Having been alerted to their presence by a twitter post, I must admit to having been both amazed and informed by the Inside the Outside (ITO) photographic collective. They are part of a movement called conceptual landscape photography. Having found my way to their website and being astounded by the quality of work on it I must … Continue reading Inside the Outside – Conceptual Landscape Photography
Here is the second part of an explanation of Fuji colour film simulations and where you might use them. Pro Neg.STD This is a simulation for a colour negative film, NS160, which was mainly used for studio portraiture. The tonality of Pro Neg STD is very soft which enhances skin tones perfectly. Shadows are not … Continue reading Fujifilm Colour simulations explained – part 2
If you shoot with Fuji, then you would already know about the fantastic film simulations that come with the cameras. Shooting .jpg means that you can get a very good idea of what your final image will be like straight from the viewfinder. If you are a RAW user however although you can set the … Continue reading Fuji Colour Film Simulations explained – part 1
I have now finished the redesign of my website portfolio and it is now live. I have updated the logo on the site to CM Photo and added a splash page. It has once again been built using Adobe’s Portfolio platform. The navigation has been reconstructed to work with the new layout and I have … Continue reading New CM Photo Website Live
Just before New Year, I decided I would put up some photographic projects during 2019 for people to attempt if they wish. My idea was that each month I will place another assignment with a different subject to photograph. I should have placed the first project on ASV on the 1st January...but didn't. Anyway, here … Continue reading Photo Projects
So, here we are in 2019 and there’s a new year ahead in which to indulge our photography interests. From a personal point of view, this coming year is a year of clarification and reorganisation of where my time is going to be allocated in my photography work. Last year I felt a little under … Continue reading Into 2019
The December edition of the photozine has now been published and you can download it below for free.
I purchased my Fujifilm X-E3 in March of 2018. It was to replace the X-E2 which I sold. The reason for replacing the small X-E2 with the equally small 3 was to reduce the amount of camera equipment that I carried whilst on holiday with Mrs M. The X-E3 came with the Fujinon 23mm F/2 … Continue reading Fuji X-E3 and the Fujinon 18mm F/2
The November edition of the photozine has now been published and you can now download it for free using the link below.
I know what one of my Christmas presents is! I was asked what I wanted by Mrs M not thinking I would get it – but today it was delivered to work (Mrs M and I work for the same company). I wasn't allowed to see it (it is a Christmas present after all) but … Continue reading Happiness is (camera) bag shaped.
The October edition of the photozine has now been published and you can download it below for free.
One of the best things we can do in order to improve our photography is to step out of our safety zones and look at other photographers work. I don't mean just looking at landscape photographs by Charlie Waite if you like landscapes but look at the work of someone who takes photographs of subjects … Continue reading Engaging with the unfamiliar
The September edition of the photozine has now been published and you can download it below for free.
What happens to all those photographs that we have taken? How do we find those images that we took maybe a year or two years ago, to have another go at processing them? I never delete any photograph, good or bad, they can be found on my RAW file drive or on its backup. In … Continue reading Logical filing is important
If you use Peak Design’s excellent straps, then you also use their anchors. In June this year, they released version 4 of their anchors as a response to a few failures of their version 3 anchors. “Few” is the operative word here. According to their website, they had seven reports of their V3 anchors wearing … Continue reading Peak Design Anchor Update Kit
When you go out to take photographs you grab your camera bag and in it, you will have a camera body/bodies and a lens/lenses. Sure you may have a flash, filters electronic release etc, but you will have at least one camera body and one lens. So which lens do you carry with you? It … Continue reading Using Lightroom to determine your favourite focal length
The August edition of the photozine has now been published and you can download it below for free.
All these images were taken in the lovely mountain village of San Mauro Castleverde. The sun was just starting to set as we walked around the atmospheric town. The shadows were long and the mountain light bright and harsh although the narrow alleys and streets of the village were dark and cool. I used a Nikon … Continue reading Sicily 7
The photographs this week were taken on the slopes of Mount Etna during our trip to Sicily in 2016. We started the day in bright, warm sunshine but as we ascended the slopes of Etna the clouds dropped obscuring virtually everything for minutes at a time. I had to pick my opportunities to fire off … Continue reading Sicily 6
The weather for the time that Mrs M and I were in Sicily was sunny and hot. However, we did have a couple of thunderstorms, once early in the morning and another later in the evening. The different types of clouds and the play of light on them made for many fascinating pictures. The two … Continue reading Sicily 5
This week I am continuing with a summer series of images taken in Sicily during 2016. They were again taken with the X-E2 and the wonderful XF18-55mm zoom lens. I no longer have the X-E2 and I must say I miss it. The quality of the images that it could produce was amazing. It did … Continue reading Sicily 4
This is the third week where I am showing some of the images that I took in Sicily during the summer of 2016. I used my Fujifilm X-E2 and the Fujinon XF18-55mm F/2.8-4 R LM OIS lens throughout the trip. A MODERN VIEW ROOFTOPS AND ALLEYWAYS BALCONIES ON THE BRINK
The July edition of the photozine has now been published you can download it below.
Some more photographs taken during a trip to the glorious island of Sicily. The camera was the Fujifilm X-E2 and the lens was the Fujinon XF18-55mm F/2.8-4 R LM OIS. Wandering through the little streets and alleyways in the ancient town of Cefalu, you are always going to find a picture. They virtually throw themselves at … Continue reading Sicily 2
The series of images which I will show on the blog over the next few weeks were taken on the fantastic island of Sicily in the summer of 2016. Mrs M. and I were spending our summer holidays there and it was our first visit enjoying the history, people and, of course, the weather of … Continue reading Sicily 1
As photographers, we should always be looking for that shot but they say that familiarity breeds contempt. The first two shots below are examples of the fact that you can always find something new to photograph no matter how many times you have been to an area or place. HIDDEN Fujifilm X-E2, Fujinon XF18-55mm F/2.8-4 … Continue reading You have to see not just look
When I'm taking photographs, more often than not, the picture is going to end up as a black and white image. I normally have a good idea what I want it to look like when I take the picture and sometimes the scene even gives the title too at that stage All that is left … Continue reading Sometimes they’re just not good enough. Own it.
I never really used to like abstract artwork, in any medium. It just didn't connect with me. Or, if I was being honest I didn't understand it. But a few years ago I really started to read about it for a course I was taking and began to look in particular, at abstract monochrome photography … Continue reading Abstract and Bemusement
The next edition of the photozine is now available for free download.
More images from the Midland Air Museum again this week. Once again they are close-ups of the amazing aircraft at the museum, but this time in monochrome. I must admit I really enjoyed pulling out all the chipped paint and details on these images in post-processing. For the whole of the shoot, I used the … Continue reading Rivets and Chips
All three of these images were taken at the Midland Air Museum at Bagington, near Coventry, Although I'm not an aeroplane aficionado, there are some great shots to be found at air museums, of which there are several around the country. I was concentrating on getting in close to the aircraft and taking abstract and … Continue reading Faded Warriors
Time constraints and other everyday paraphernalia have been getting in my way over the last few weeks whenever I have tried to sit down and write this blog. With an (almost) full-time job and other commitments, it seems that A Sensored View must take a back seat for a while, or rather the written side … Continue reading Shadows and Doorways
I always find it a lot harder to decide on the tonal qualities that I want to see in a colour photograph than I do in a monochrome image. Because of that, I find that the ability to choose a colour profile as a starting point is very advantageous in Lightroom. Of course, other processing … Continue reading A profile can help
The fifth issue of A Sensored View is now available for free download.
Shadows can be a very important part of a photograph. They give a sense of weight and of depth to an image. This is particularly important in black and white photographs for, without the presence of colour, monochrome images rely on tonal values, texture and shapes to form a powerful image. The following images show … Continue reading Shadows in monochrome
Continuing on from last week’s post, I have another three photographs taken at the National Trust property Calke Abbey in Derbyshire. They were all taken once again with the X-T1 camera and 18-55mm F/2.8-4 zoom lens. FADED ELEGANCE Fujifilm X-T1, Fujinon 18-55MM f2.8-4 R LM OIS This shot was obviously taken in the house itself … Continue reading Exploring the past
All of the photographs this week were shot at the National Trust property of Calke Abbey. It’s a favourite place of mine to get atmospheric shots of buildings, interiors and close-ups. The property was once the home of the reclusive, eccentric and private Harpur Crewe family, who kept Calke hidden away until the estate and … Continue reading Opening the past
Today I have two examples of flora photography and one shot of a pond that seems to have unfathomable depths. Each of the two flowers have been obviously treated differently: one in in colour, the other in monochrome. This gives two completely different visions of the plants with each one equally valid. EDGED IN PURPLE … Continue reading Flowers and a reflection
A Sensored View issue 4 is now available for free download.
This is the second part of the series of photographs I took at Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire. Once again they were taken with a new Fuji X-T1 and a 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS lens but this time they are all monochrome. Once again the lens coped unbelievably well considering I was shooting through dirty … Continue reading On Safari: Part 2
Let’s get one thing clear from the start, I am not a wildlife photographer. The photographers who do this photographic discipline have a particular form of dedication and skill which I have nothing but admiration for. However, over the next couple of weeks, I will be showing some of the photographs that I took whilst … Continue reading On Safari : Part 1
There are some more images taken at Batsford Arboretum in Gloucestershire this week. This time, however, I am showing four monochrome photographs. Although there are some beautiful colours to be found at arboretums all year round there are also marvellous tones, textures and shapes that can be emphasised with careful post-processing. MANY LIMBED Fujifilm X-T1 … Continue reading Monochrome Arboretum
I write the picture posts to this blog, using the images in the order that I took them. Currently, I am trawling through my photographs taken in 2016 and have now got to August of that year. My wife and I were on a trip to Batsford Arboretum in Gloucestershire on a (probably) rare sunny … Continue reading Verdancy
Issue 3 of the photozine 'A Sensored View', is now available for free download below.
The majority of my photographs end up as black and white. I also shoot RAW which means that I have the full information of the scene I took with the image file. This means that I can dodge and burn, enhance or reduce until I get the final image that I require. The initial step … Continue reading Looking through the colour
There are three more monochrome images this week. One is a close-up and the other two are somewhat unusual for me in that they are of people. They were taken on a warm Sunday at the National Trust property of Calke Abbey, and they show people at leisure, enjoying the scenery and the weather. EXPECTATION … Continue reading Enjoying the Weather
With all the bells and whistles that cameras have at this time, I suppose it’s easy to overlook something or not read the manual properly. I have been doing photography from the time I bought a brand new Olympus OM10 SLR. So I learnt how to use aperture priority first and then manual. Other cameras … Continue reading One third in….
These three images were part of a set that I took whilst Mrs M and I were on a short break down in Devon. Neither of us had been down there for a good many years. The last time was probably when our daughter who is now 27, was a toddler. I think the impression … Continue reading Land of the Dumnonii
It’s winter in the UK at the moment and this year there seems to be more bleak, grey days than I can remember we’ve had over the last few years. This bland, depressing time is sometimes spasmodically interspersed with days of eye-watering brightness, long shadows and a crisp coldness that quietly numbs the end of your … Continue reading Looking forward to winter’s end.
